Nike to stop selling on Amazon

I have been a long-term critic of amazon for a couple of reasons – one is because they don’t contribute enough to cities to cover the actual costs of their business model (a criticism not limited to amazon), and the other because amazon is an increasingly poor customer experience – with more and more counterfeit goods (what percentage of “Apple” products on Amazon are actually genuine apple prodcts? ), an increasingly complicated user/platform interface, and the ‘Prime’ service increasingly isn’t – less and less is available as Prime and ‘Prime’ goods can now take a week plus to be shipped/delivered.

A company spokesperson said the brand was focused on “elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships.”

As long as Amazon can’t control their sellers – and as a reseller it’s not necessarily in Amazon’s interest to actively control sellers who use their platform – this is the reputational risk Amazon faces. Amazon is an increasingly bad place for brands to be – particularly if they have alternative distribution platforms.